Portable hand-held blowers, commonly referred to as leaf blowers, have become indispensable home maintenance products for a wide variety of tasks. Commercial landscapers also use these devices, especially for spring and fall clean-up services. Blowers which can convert to vacuums provide an added degree of versatility to this product.
A convertible blower vacuum is a device which can be used as a blower or converted to operate as a vacuum. Conversion involves merely assembling a vacuum tube to the air inlet to direct the suction and placing a bag over the air outlet to collect the accumulated dust. An example of one such prior art device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. Re. 33,050 which issued to Tuggle. The Tuggle patent discloses a convertible gasoline powered blower vacuum wherein a saucer-shaped cover having an upturned rim is used to prevent pebbles from being drawn into the inlet opening during operation of the device in the blower mode. The base of the cover is solid and air is forced to flow upwardly above the rim of the cover prior to entry into the air inlet of the housing. The cover pivots at one end to allow insertion of the vacuum tube into the air inlet opening. Only a single handle is provided on the housing, even though the device is intended to be used in two entirely different orientations for blowing and for vacuuming.
The inlet cover is opened for insertion of the vacuum tube, by gripping the cover by its perimeter while sliding the vacuum tube into the inlet. This can be inconvenient because it is difficult to grasp the perimeter of the inlet cover while inserting the vacuum tube.
Air flows in an S-shaped path indirectly into the air inlet in the invention disclosed in the Tuggle patent. The solid bottom cover prevents air flow directly into the air inlet. As a result, air flow is restricted to the S-shaped path over the up-turned end of the inlet cover and below the tubular extension of the air inlet.
These and other problems and disadvantages encountered by the prior art are overcome by the present invention as summarized below.